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«TATE OF THE UNION. 



SPEECH 



"HON. EMERSON ETHEKIDGE 



OF TENNESSEE. 



Mhere4 in iUEoim of liepreseataJifes, Jae, 2X mu 



V' 



WASHINGTON; 
PRINTED BY HENRX FOLKIx\HORN, 



186] 



S I=» E E O KC 



The Hrnta havisg ander consideration the report of the 

Mr. ETHEUIDGE said: 
Mr. Speaker, I have frequently had oc- 
casion to express my opinions in regard to 
matters of grave public concern, and I have 
often done so at the risk of imputations upon 
ray political integrity. I have too fre- 
quently found that many of those with whom 
I differed, have indulged in censure of my 
acts, and imputed even treason to my mo- 
tives. In a contest like this, involving as it 
does, the existence of the Government, and 
the preservation of popular freedom ; arous- 
ing as it does, the fiercest passions of rival 
and contending parties, a man must be at ] 
once for or against his whole country. It 
matters not under what banner he arrays 
himself, those upon the opposite side will i 
attacii to him the most selfish and treason- ' 
able aims. I say, therefore, in advance, ! 
that in whatever 1 may now say upon the 
subject under consideration, I shall not seek ] 
to evade any responsibilities of that kind, j 
I shall not attempt to speak merely to avoid | 
censure, or [by affectation or hypocrisy ^^to 
court commendatioa. In what I say, I 
shall be bound by a strict regard for truth. 
The opinions I shall avow are those sanc- 
tioned by observation ani experience; they 
have the approval of my heart. And the 
facts to which I shall refer, will, I am sure, 
be sustained by the unquestioned truths of 
history. 

Sir, if I had a jury of twelve honest and 
unpretending men, sworn well and truly to 
try the issues joined between the contending 
factions — a jury belonging to no political 
party, and without oiner motive than a de- 
sire to subserve the best interests of their 
country — I could, by submitting a plain 
statement of undisputed facts, have a prompt 
and unanimous verdict in favor of preserv- 
ing the Union of thesv States. Unfortu- 
nately, sir, we cannot here, raid now, get a 
disinterested jury ; but it is consoling to 
know that lime will soon adjourn ail these 
difficult questions to the arbitrament of all 
the people, who, with no other weapon thai, 
the ballot-box, will be able to arrest revolu- 
tion and save the country. If, for the last 
year or two, the men and women of this 
country could have observed the deliberations 
of this body; could have seen each member 
as he is, and witnessed your daily proceed- 
ings, they would instantly rise up all over 
the country, and arrest the tide of revolution, 
which is threatening to involve us all in one 
eommon ruin. There afe thirty millions of 



select committee of tUirty-tbroe-» 

people whose ptace and happiness, whose 
very existence is involved in these grave 
issues. This Hou^e is composed of but two 
hundred and thirty-six members, some of 
whom, doubtless, have reached their present 
position by the merest accidents. It may be 
safely assumed that each member of this 
body represents, among his immediate con- 
stituents, more than that number of states- 
men — statesmen, perhaps, our superiors ia 
wisdom and moderation, yet we are to be 
told in this day of fearful precipitation, that 
because forsooth. Congress, elected as it has 
been, without reference to the issues now be- 
fore us, cannot, or v^ill not, instantly do 
something to stay the tide of revolution, 
therefore, there is no hope for the country. 
I say, again, could the people behold those 
who are now around me, could they see 
■ them when under their alternate hopes and 
fears — the hopes inspired by the " Tribune," 
or the fears arousad by the thunderings of 
the " Herald," — [Laughter.] could they see 
and know all these things, as they really 
are, their good sense would cause them to 
reject with scorn, the idea of hazarding, 
finally and forever, the peace of the country 
almia ujwn the deliberations of such a body? 
Can it be possible that we hold the final des- 
tinies of such a people, and such a country 
in our hands alone 1 I answer, no ; such an 
imputation is a libel upon the good sense of 
the millions who are resolved to preserve the 
institutions our ancestors so wisely ordained. 
As well might so many hackmen, gathered 
promiscuously from the streets of New York, 
get together and constitute themselves sole 
arbiters of a country, which will endure so 
long as we are fit to be free. In what spirit 
was our Government conceived ? It was in 
jealousy, and not in confidence. Why, sir, 
by the very Constitution which you and I 
have sworn to support — and I mean to keep 
my oath — your Government alone was 
formed ; and throughout every line of that 
Constitution, is a manifest distrust of man's 
ability to resist the temptations of power. 
Hence, short terms in office were prescribed, 
and every officer of the Governmont was 
required to swear fealty to that Constitution. 
Even the Father of liis Country was not 
allowed to assume the Executive authority, 
until he had fir.st invoked the vengeance of 
Heaven, should he fail faithfully to support 
and defend the Constitution he bad assisted 
to ordain. This body is wisely so constitu 
ted that, at the e ;piration of every two years, 



we are compelled by the Constitution, to 
return our authority to the people. If dis- 
satisfied witli our conduct they are sure to 
dispense with our services. Our Govern- 
ment contemplated just such emergencies as 
we are noAv compelled to meet, and, how- 
ever, contumacious the politicians may be, 
in despite of thera, every issue now before 
us will soon be adjourned by the Constitu- 
tion itself to the decision of the whole peo- 
ple. They have the good sense and patriot^ 
ism to work out a safe solution of all real 
or pretended difficulties. If error prevails 
now, their sound judgment will combat it 
successfully, and all will finally l)c well 
again. 

Mr. Speaker, althoQgh we are to-day de- 
liberating upon questions which, when we 
were respectively elected, were not before 
the American people, yet the hasty precipita- 
tors of this revolution, tell us, if we do not 
decide at once, and so deciding come up to 
their requirements, we must accepf, the al- 
ternative of dismemberment with all its at- 
tendant horrors ! I protest against it. I 
demand, to-day, for the innocent millions 
whose peace, prosperity, civilization — whose 
very existence is so fearfully involved, an 
adjournment of this whole matter from the 
arbitrament of maddened unrelenting politi- 
cians to all the people — to those v/hose ser- 
vants we are, and who will not fail in this 
great emergency, to save the priceless heri- 
tage which you have no rightful power to 
destroy. And, sir, if you do not so adjourn 
all these questions to the people — to those 
whose peace and happiness are so fearfully 
imperilled — they will speedily adjourn you 
to a dark oblivion, and write shame and in- 
famy upon your graves. What right have 
you or I, or any one of us, to assume that we 
alone will pass, finally, upon the questions 
of peace and war, among our own people, 
when'ihey themselves, with the balloc-box in 
their hands, are impatient, as I believe, to 
pass their judgment upon these measures, 
which, however, abstract they may be, will, 
if adopted, disarm the enemies of the Union 
of their treasonable pretexts, and leave them 
without further power to mislead their too 
confiding victims. I yet trust this House 
will do something — yes, sir, do much, to 
allay this alarm, and apprehension ; and 
while I shall continue to vote for every pro- 
position to disarm ihose ichose aim is dlf<ii/non, 
and whose grievances are mainly pretexts, 
1 do not hesitate to announce in my plaae, 
that if this Congress shall, finally, fail to meet 
the public expectation in patriotic quarters, 
I will not then be willing to abandon my 
interest in almost the only government in the 
world, which is worth preserving. This j 
House cannot, by any indifference it may j 
lYianifiel ^0'th^ various propotitions before I 



it, force me to join those, who, aiming at dis- 
union as an end, expect by your indifference 
to gather strength for their revolutionary de- 
signs. Before I consent to aid in the over- 
throw of my country, and to extinguish its 
nationality, I will counsel with your masters— 
thfe people — those in whose unambitious 
hearts, love of country and of kind, burns as 
brightly as of yore. 

Sir, this revolution which threatens, speedi- 
ly to involve us all, and which is suggestive 
of so terrible a future, is the most extraordi- 
nary, unpardonable, and indefensible the 
world has ever looked upon; and public men 
all over the country, of whom better things 
were expected — men who, a few months ago, 
were indignant at the bare suspicion of their 
sympathy or complicity with those who 
were i/ioi plotting revolution, are now coun- 
selling armed rebellion, and playing with the 
worst passions of mankind, as though nothing 
serious were involved in the result. 

I propose to meet fairly the dread aUerna- 
tive presented by these precipitators ; to meet 
them in a candid spirit, and to array in 
opposition to their real and pretended griev- 
ances, some of the manifold blessings which 
all sections of the country have derived 
from the Government — a Governmentwhich 
smiles even yet benignantly upon its mis- 
guided children. And may I not ask, what 
utter madness and folly, must there be in 
subverting the Government for the purpose 
of securing out of the Union, rights or privi- 
leges which may not be secured or vindicated 
by candid appeals to our kindred and friends, 
who salute the same flag, and acknowledge 
a common ancestry. 

It is a remarkable and most significant fact, 
that this revolution is not justified or carried 
on with reference so much to anything which 
lixis been done by Congress, or any political 
party,%s because of dangers which, it is al- 
leged, are to be apprehended ia the future. 
The only thing charged to have been already 
done or performed, as was said by my friend 
from Virginia, [Mr. MillsonJ twodaysago, 
is the passage by the Legislatures of some 
of the free States, of the so-called Personal 
Li! erty bills. If I had time — I have not — I 
believe precipitation reigns here, and each 
moment, as it "rides upon the dial's point," 
(pointing to the clock,) admonishes me that 
1, too, must be precipitate. If I had time, I 
could show — and I challenge contradiction 
from any disunionist, if such there be here — 
that you will be infinitely more the victims 
of the unfriendly legislation of the free 
States, when the Government has been des- 
troyed, than you now are, or ever can be, 
while the Constitution endures and the 
Union is maintained. This — the passage of 
the Personal Liberty bills — I repeat, is the 
only thing now actually done or performed 



by an/ depar':nieiit of Govprnnient, State or 
Fee oral, otwhicii even disunionists can com- 
plain. I wiW endoavar, t'len, tb sita'te the 
dancjers you profess to fear in the future. 

First, Yoj .-ay the p3oph' of the North are 
op[io:5cd to the execution ol the fugitive shivc 
law. 

SecQii'l, That the Republican party, wlien 
they obtain coitrol of hoth branches of Con- 
gress, intend to exclude slavery from all the 
Territories by act of Congress. 

Third, That the people of the North re- 
fuse to grant Congressional protection to 
slave property in the free Territories. 

Fourth, That they intend, finally, to change 
the Federal Constitution, thereby to enable 
them to abolish slavery in the States. 

Fifth, That the people of the free States 
are opposed to slavery. 

Sixth, That the people of the respective 
sections are not homogeneous — that they hate 
each other. a 

Seventh, That some of the people of the 
free States, favor thesocialaad political equal- 
ity of the negro. 

Eightlt, That the South is in danger of in- 
vasions, similar to John Brown's raid into 
Virginia. 

I think I have fairly stated all the various 
charges which the disunionists have embo- 
died into this indictment against the Govern- 
ment they seek to overthrow, and the people 
they would treat as enemies. Now, sir, I 
frankly confess that the Personal Liberty 
bills do exist in some of the free States, They 
are, whenever designed to evade the Consti- 
tution or the laws passed under it, without 
extenuation or excuse. But it is gratifying 
to perceive, if the signs of the times are 
worth anything, that all these Personal Lib- 
erty bills, which in any manner conflict 
with the Constitution, are soon to be swept 
from- the statute books of the free States. 
And if this were not so, it should not be for- 
gotten, that these laws have existed during 
the whole of the last eight years of Demo- 
cratic rule, and without so much as a threat 
of revolution for such a cause; nor should 
it be overlooked, that if they are unconstUu- 
iional they are simply void, and if they are 
passed without a violation of the Constitu- 
tion, as States-rights men you have less rea- 
son to complain. I repeat they will soon be 
repealed. Nothing retards it now, in ray 
opinion, but that general repugnance which 
all men feel in doing anything seemingly, 
"upon cdmiuilsion." I repeat, this is the 
only act that has been done, by State or Fed- 
eral authority, upon which disunion is justi- 
fied by its advocates; and, as I before said, 
the other grounds of complaint are in refer- 
ence to things you profess to believe will 
hereafter oscur — things which never have 
happened, and which never could transpire 



if the seceding States had continued in the 
Union, and yourrcpresentatives had remained 
at their posts. I taight further remark in re- 
gard to these Personal Liberty bills, that they 
do not, as I am assured, exist in the border 
free States — the States which immediately 
adjoin the slave States — Iowa, Illinois, In- 
diana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. 
Where, then, do they exist? They are found 
on the statute books only, of such far off 
States as Vermont — a State in which, I am 
assured, there has not been a fugitive slave 
for forty years; a State as inaccessible to a 
slave's approach, as his escape is impossible 
from South Carolina. 

But yoa say that slaves escape from the 
southern States, and are permitted to pass 
through the free States, and take refuge in 
Canada. I grant this to be true ; and they 
will, in all time to come, occasionally es- 
cape from their owners. No system of laws 
can guard against it. In some negroes a 
disposition to run away is inherent. It must 
be endured, unless, per chance, you can in- 
vent some peculiar lineament to restrain the 
elasticity of their legs. (Laughter.) I reside 
within a day's ride of the iVee States, yet 
I have never known more than one slave to 
make his escape from my own neighborhood 
into the free States. He passed through that 
part of Kentucky now represented by my 
friend, [Mr. Burnett,] and took refuge in 
Illinois. He was arrested by some of the 
citizens of that State and taken back to his 
owner. Now, I will not blame my friend 
from Kentucky for permitting this fugitive 
to pass thiviigh his district, nor will I coun- 
sel disunion because his constituents did not 
arrest him on his way. Fugitive slaves do 
pass through the free States, and find free- 
dom in Canada, but have you any means of 
reclaiming them now, in the British domin- 
ions; aiid will not a disruption of the Union, 
in effect, bring the Canada line down to the 
banks of the Ohio ? 

But what appeals have the southern States 
made to the free States to repeal tiiese stat- 
utes? Is not their existence rather an ima- 
ginary than a real grievance? For I am 
informed that under them no fugitive slave 
has ever been liberated, nor has there been, 
at any time, a prosecution or fine, forfeiture 
or conviction, for any alleged violation of 
their provisions. Instead of seeking relief 
in that spirit which would have given dig- 
nity and effect to the app.eal, the whole 
matter has been left to the party newspapers 
and politicians. 

But the precipitators complain, as I have 
stated, that many of the people of the free 
States are hostile to the execution of the 
fugitive-slave law. Doubtless this is so to a 
great extent; but this is not the fault of the 
Federal Government, nor of the law. Mr. 



6 



Buchanan, in his late annual message to 
Congress, used this very language : 

"The fugitive-slave law has been carried into execu- 
tion ill every contesteJ case eiiicc the ccmmencement of 
^e present administration." 

And it is a matter of history, that not a 
dozen slaves have been rescued within the 
last forty years, from the custody of the offi- 
cers of the United States, while acting under 
the authority of that law. You know the 
statement I make is true, although the people 
of the South are made to believe that it is 
impossible to recapture a runaway slave 
•without his being in almost every instance 
rescued from the custody of the officers of 
the law. And while every rescue is made 
a matter of public notoriety, mention in 
rarely, if ever made, of the instances in 
which the law is enforced. We all know 
that fugitive slaves are almost constantly 
being captured in the free States and car- 
ried back to their owners; but informa- 
tion of cases of this kind rarely find their 
way into the party newspapers — certainly 
not in those which advocate disunion. But 
a mob or a riot, originating in matters of 
this kind, is the food upon which secession 
leaders wax wroth and grow fat. If the fu- 
gitive-slave law is not now well executed, 
will it be more faithfully enforced if you dis- 
solve the Union ? Will you then have any 
fugitive-slave law whatever? It cannot ex- 
ist for a moment beyond the life of that 
Constitution which secession seeks to destroy. 

Whether we have two or more Confedera- 
cies, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Maryland are to be converted into mere out- 
posts. The people who know most of their 
present free-State neighbors, and with whom 
commercial intercourse must of necessity 
exist, are to have their immediate northern 
friends transformed into enemies, and all the 
priveleges of the Constitution are to be sur- 
rendered for the poor boon of standing as 
military sentinels to guard those who dream 
of Southern Confederacies, and feel secure 
because of their remoteness from danger. 
These seceding States are now no sufferers 
from the evilsof which they complain. They 
know nothing of Personal Liberty bills, ex- 
cept as lliey atford pretexts for their schemes, 
while hundreds of miles of slave territory 
intervenes between them and the free States. 
It is the border slave States I have named 
which alone feel the injustice of the aboli- 
tionists; and now the Gulf States propose by 
disunion, to aggravate all these evils and 
add to their number a thousand fold. It re- 
mains to be seen if they and their misguided 
allies can so far mislead the. people of tlie 
borc'er slave States as to induce them thus 
recklessly to ttirovv away their best interests, 
to gratify the malignity of disappointed 
ambition. And let it be remembered that 



there is no complaint from any quarter of 
the South against the provisions of the 
fugitive-slave law. The charge, as I have 
already said, is that some of the people of 
the free Slates do not approve its provisions, 
and sometimes resist its enforcement. But 
this is not the fault of the Federal Govern- 
ment, wliich disunion would madly destroy. 
Mr. Orr, late the presiding officer of this 
House, and very recently a resident Com- 
missioner "near the Government of the 
United States," from the Kingdom of South 
Carolina, (laughter) has declared the fugi- 
tive-slave law to be "as stringent as humaa 
ingenuity can make it." I ask my friends 
who are in favor of dissolving the Union, if 
its overthrow vsiil make the fugitive-slave 
law more stringent, or make the radicai 
anti-slavery men of the free States more in- 
clined to admire its provisions. I frankly 
adm't that the northern people are opposed 
to slgvery in the abstract ; they always werej 
they are so now, and they always will be so. 
You cannot find an honest northern man, 
born, reared, and educated in a free State — 
and who knows nothing of the stern neces- 
sity of the relation of servitude as it exists in 
the southern States, but what he hears frona 
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and their co- 
adjutors — who is not opposed to slavery m 
the abstract. It is true many of your Yan- 
kees go South, and almost instantly fall ia 
love with a negro (laughter) — I beg pardon — 
with a woman who has some real or contin- 
gent interest in a plantation and negroes; 
and not unfrequently they cajole her into 
marriage. Very soon you will hear them 
announce their belief in the theory of Agas- 
siz, and descant hugely against the unity of 
the human race. I have had repeated lec- 
tures myself from these interesting gentry. 
I repeat that the people of the free States 
have always been opposed to slavery — as 
evidence of which I point you to the fact 
that they abolished it when it existed among 
them. It is quite as difficult to make a 
northern man favorable to negro slavery — 
without making him interested in it — as it is 
to make a politician run away from a fat 
office. (Laughter.) 

The precipitators assign as another cause 
for their attempt to overthrow the Govern- 
ment, that the people of the free Slates in- 
tend to abolish slavery in the States where it 
exists. Now, sir, I do not believe there is 
one word of truth in this allegation, and 
those who make it ought to kndw better; 
and if such were their desire we all know 
ihey have no such power. The whole Re- 
publican party denounce this charge as 
false. I am here in the presen.ce of the 
members of this House, and 1 aver that there 
is not a man in this Congress, of any parly, 
from any quarter of the country, who claims 



1 



the power or avows the purpose to interfere [ 
with slavery ia the States where it exists, 
(Cries of "not one," from the Republican side 
of the House ) If there is one I wish to know 
it, (voice, " There are none.") because he 
will receive the rebuke not only of his col- 
leagues, but of every man who wishes to live 
up to the Constitution. But, sir, this pur- 
pose is imputed to the people of the free 
States by the disunionists and their allies, in 
the teeth of tlie most solemn assurance which 
a political party can make to the world ; and 
I hesitate not to say that this assurance has 
been, in many instances, purposely withheld 
from the people of the slave States so that 
this misrepresentation might produce its 
baleful effects upon the popular mind. 1 re- 
member that during the last summer some of 
the newspapers in my own State affected to 
be horrihed because I read the following 
resolution from the Republican platform : 

"That the mointunance inviolate of the rights of the 
States, and especially the rig:ht of each Slate to order and 
control its own domestic institutions, according to its own 
judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power 
on which the perfection and endurance of our political 
fabric depends ; and wg denounce the lawless invasion 
by armed force oi the soil of ai;y State or Territory, 
BO matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of 
crimes." 

And I do not hesitate now, in this presence? 
to assert, that no political party that ever 
assembled in convention in this country, has 
given stronger guaranties against any desire 
or any power to interfere with slavery in the 
States of this Union. They did more than 
this — that which no other political party in 
this country has ever done. Apprehending 
the possibility of invasions similar to that of 
John Brown, they denounce in express terms 
all such raids " as among the gravest of 
crimes." Common fairness requires that we 
take gentlemen at their word, but if more 
were wanting in this regard, they are now 
willing to appease your apprehension.s — if 
any such you have — to vote for an amend- 
ment to the Constitution, declaring in express 
terms that Congress shall never have power 
or authority to legislate in regard to slavery 
in the States where it may exist. Such a 
provision would be, in fact, no amendment 
at all, but a declaration of what the Consti- 
tution already is ; for no intelligent lawyer, 
no man of sense, believes that the Constitu- 
tion now confers upon Congre.ss any such 
power. 

But, say those who are intent upon sub- 
verting the Government: the people of the 
two sections are dissimiliar; they have their 
peculiarities and prejudices; they hate each 
other. Sir, that may all be true to some ex- 
tent, but there may be more hope of another, 
and, I trust, a better generation. 

How long have they been hating each 
other to that extent which can justil'y a 
separation, and that intensified hate which 



will be sure to follow fraternal war? The 
people of the North and South do not hate 
each other, one particle more than did the 
embittered leaders of the old Whig and 
Democratic parties at the close of those san- 
guinary political conflicts which mailed our 
history a few brief years ago. But will they 
love each other any more sincerely when 
they are separated into hostile armies and 
encamped in battle array? Or, will the 
bloody traditions, which will disturb the re- 
pose of our children, prepare them for a more 
cordial embrace? True, you may separate 
upon paper, but the Ohio will be a poor me- 
morial of peace between a rival people and 
contending States. But I will not agree 
that you hate each other now. Our lineage 
is the same, and eath should know the other's 
infirmities by his own. If your constituents 
couldj sometimes see, how frequently and 
how lovingly the Free Soiier and the South- 
ern Radical hold kind and familiar council; 
how often they almost embrace each other, 
they would not for a moment believe the 
stale complaint of sectional hate. I will 
tell you when you most cordially hate each 
other. 'Tis when the ms are compelled to 
give place to the outa. When that array of 
political retainers, by the reverses of politi- 
cal fortune, has to take up its baggage, and 
abandon the tempting harvests of the Capi- 
tal, then it is you hate each other. (Laugh- 
ter and applause in the gallaries.) Sir, if 
you desire to witness a grand living panora- 
ma of the sorrowlul faces which were seen 
when the Jews were led into captivity, you 
have but to take a position upon one of these 
adjacent towers on the fourth of March, and 
behold these martyrs, now so devoted to 
country, when they are exiled from the places 
they now know, and love so well. Sir, I 
trust that in a grave public emergency like 
this, love of our whole country, and every 
part of it, may banish all meaner emotions. 
In an hour like this, I would scorn to cherish 
an unkind political feeling toward a human 
being. I feel that if I could, by immolating 
myself, add a day to the life of my country, 
I would freely make the offering ; and I trust 
that all others will yet be found to yield 
much tu preserve that Union with which is 
mingled the best hopes of mankind." Again 
I ask you ; will you love each other better 
in that fearful hour of final separation? 
You will not ! You cannot! But hate — 
undying hate — will foment and protract 
feuds and contests more bitter and unrelent- 
ing, than those of the rival houses of York 
and Lancaster. Furthermore: let this gov- 
ernment be broken up, and the Border Slave 
States dragooned, first into revolution and 
then into a Southern Confederacy, and ten 
years will not have elapsed before t!»e slum- 
bering fires of the present strife will be bla- 



8 



zing th'fi-e, and perhaps aMother rtvulution will 
mark our iiistory. If iliis be not .so, ilien all 
history is a falsehood, and its philobopliy a 
lie. 

It is^leged that a portion of llic people 
of i ho free Stales I'avor the social equality 
of the negro. Well, if this be so to any 
considerable extent, 1 am very sorry for it 
and wish it were otherwise. To say the 
least, it exhibits, in ray judgment, a very 
bad taste; but I do not believe it is so to 
any considerable extent. But if it were, 
would separation change their tastc-s or make 
thevn repudiate such social equality. 1 will 
not make any special allusion, or recur par- 
ticularly to a cliapler in our past party war- 
fare. Were. I to do so, 1 might show how 
an alleged predilection lor the social equality 
of the negro was once charged upon a gal- 
lant soldier and veteran statesman, who, 
during an eventful life, was a special favor- 
ite of the people, ?'Jorth and South. But 
this I will say, that scandal is the poisonous 
weapon of all poliiical parties in truly ex- 
citing limes. It is often invoked, and l)ut 
rarely in vain. I may say that the political 
equality of the negro was not wholly un- 
known to the people of some of the slave 
States thirty years agt*. Half a century 
elapsed, in some of the southern Stales, he- 
fore the right of suffrage was denied to the 
free negro po])ulation. I live in a State 
whose public men have not been wholly 
unknown lo fame. We yet preserve recol- 
lections ola Jackso'i and a Polk. The first 
constitution of Tennessee was made in 17S6. 
It remained unchanged until the year of 
grace 1835, and one of the peculiar features 
of that constitution was that it sanctioned 
and approved the political equality of the 
negro to the extent of allowing tiie right 
of suffrage; and if he owned a sufficient 
amount of property, he was given a prefer- 
ence over the white man who had none. 
Andrew Jackson was a member of the con- 
vention that ordained that constitution 

His signature is attached to it to-day, and 
twice, before it was changed, he was made 
Presidtnt of the United States. In the 
State of New York, but two months ago, a 
proposition to give political equality to the 
negro, to the extent of universal suffrage, 
was voted down by more than ten to one. 
It did not receive the vote of any consider- 
able minority in a single county in the State. 
I repeat, that the political equality of the 
negro, to the extent 1 have named— and it 
is, I believe, the extent to which it prevails 
in any of the free States — has existed here- 
tofore in many of the southern States. It 
formerly prevailed in my native State — 
North Carolina — where, until within the 
hst thirty years, free negroes were allowed 
the right of suffi - v'. May we not exercise 



a little charity and forbearance upon this 
matter, especially as we set the exaimple and 
have no rightful power, to prevent its exer- 
cise in other States. Most of the free States 
never ha ve, and do not now permit negro 
sufi'ragf, while social equality is a thing al- 
most wholly unknown, even in the most 
radical of the anti-slavery States. The 
people of Tennessee advanced somewhat 
slowly, as is shown by their allowing negro 
suffrage from 1796 until 1835, and as these 
Republicans are somewhat progressive, per- 
ha|;s they, loo, after a while, may change 
their policy. 

As to the apprehensions expressed about 
invasions, such as John Brown made into 
Virginia, I have this to answer : will disunion 
or separation enable the seceding Stales lo 
protect themselves more efficiently than now? 
S^an you have a more sanguinary code for 
the punishment of such invasions a/ier sepa- 
ralion than we now have? At this time, 
every citizen of the southern States feels 
himself judge, juror, and executioner in such 
cases, and every tree in the forest, is tnade a 
convenient gallows on which to hang such 
invaders, John Brown's fate has taught all 
such men that we now have a code in such 
cases as sure and summary as it can be made. 
It is a matter of history that the noble Slate 
of Pennsylvania — a State which, if it had 
to speak through the ballot-box to-day, would 
roll up a majority of thousands in favor of 
Union and a lair adjustment of present com- 
plications — was prompt to vindicate herielf 
from any suspicion of sympathy with Brown 
and his dozen followers. Two of his adher- 
ents sought refuge in the m»untains of that 
State, where they were arrested by as many 
of her citizens, and instantly surrendered to 
the authorities of Virginia, where they were 
tried, convicted, and executed. They paid 
the penalty of their crimes with a lorfeiture 
of their li-ves yet so great was the panic 
created by this insane project of Brown that 
the State of Virginia immediately flew to 
arms her northern border was bristling with 
bayonets, as was alleged, to repel an appre- 
hended invasion from Pennsylvania, and 
other States, for the liberation of Brown and 
his followers. And the people of Virginia 
believed such an invasion was seriously con- 
templated ! 

Sir, the great evil of the times is, that the 
people of all the different sections have list- 
ened so much to persistent misrepresenta- 
tions, that they actually know less of each 
other's true purposes and feelings to-day than 
they did thirty years ago. The policy of the 
radical abolitionists is to intensify the oppo- 
sition to slavery which has always existed 
in the northern mind. To do this, they pub- 
lish every libel that fanaticism can invent, 
and apply it to Lhe great body of the people 



of the South. And the purpose of the dis- 
unionists of the South has been, and now i?, 
to give notoriety to every extreiin upinionof 
northern ultraistsas the prevailiuix sjntiment 
of tile great body of the peoplc'of the free 
States. In each section, the most intemper- 
ate expressions and conduct of the other, are 
represented as the rule instead of the excep- 
tion. Thus misrepresentation, perversion, 
and falsehood have done their work, and we 
are now reaping the bitter fruits. Last year 
Texas was represented asm flames; peaceful 
villages and habitations were said to be con- 
sumed by the torch of northern abolition in- 
cendiaries. The public mind was frenzied; 
and no doubt the innocent were often made 
victims to that wide spread alarm which time 
aiid reflection Avill prove to have been un- 
founded. But, were these exaggerations all 
stern realities, would separation or disunion 
increase the power of the people there to'pro- 
tpct themselves from the dagger or the torch? 
Will that State have greater facilities for 
punishing inciters of insurrection when out 
of the Union, than are now found icithin it! 
Reason and common sense answer, No. A 
northern abolitionist, or other person, who 
goes to Texas to tamper with slaves or pro- 
mote rebellion, deserves a permanent lodg- 
ment in an asylum for the insane. Of all the 
places in the world, Texas is the last to wel- 
come or appreciate his presence. As well 
might the most devoutly pious seek happi- 
ness by folding his Christian mantle around 
him, and plunging into the gulf which sepa- 
rates Lazarus from the rich man in hell. 
[Laughter.] So much then, for the various 
allegations which theseceders have preferred 
against the Federal Government. 

I have for the sake of the arjuraent ac- 
cepted all your charges as^rue, and allowed 
you to present them in their most aggravated 
form; and were they all really true to the 
extent, that partisan coloring has {feinted 
them, still so well satisfied am I that dis- 
union would aggravate them all and prove 
no remedy for anything, that I would endure 
all these evils for years to come, before I 
would overthrow my country, and entail 
upon its kindred people the inevitable horrors 
of fraternal war. Sir, I go further; I so love 
my country that I would add to all these 
things, a continuance of the unfortunate reign 
of James Buchanan, and his late advisers, 
for eight years more. I would repeat the sad 
experiment of the "old Public Functionary" 
for a dozen years, before I would consent to 
murder my country and extinguish the 
patriot's last and dearest hopes. 

In regard to the pending question and 
others of a kindred nature, I have only time 
to say, that I am ready to vote for "the pro- 
position originally submitted to the Senate, 
and commonly called the Crittenden amend- 



ment. I will vote, of course, for the proposi- 
tion whie't I hrid the honor to submit to the 
House a few days ago ; and, failing in this, 
1 will support in good faith the measures re- 
ported by the gentleman irom Ohio iMr. 
CofiwiN] from the committee of thirty-three. 
I will suppoit any one of these, preferring of 
course my own. And should each, and all 
of tiiese measures fail; should all other pend- 
ing propositions be voted down, I will not 
then abandon the Union of these State-, and 
the untold blessings it lavishes upon the 
votaries of civil liberty throughout the world. 
Failing in each and all of these 'measures, I 
willTeturn home, and link my destinies with 
those who are ready to confront disunion. 
If needs be, I will meet it with a torch ia 
one hand and a sword in the other, and so 
help me God, so long as the stars and siripes 
wave o'er my State, or any part of it, I will 
never bow the knee to the storm of Disunion. 
[Great applause in the gallaries.] 

Mr. Speaker: Let us look impartially for 
a moment, at some of the leading political 
events of the past. They will justify the 
assertion that, from the time the Constitution 
was ordained, down to this hour, no act has 
been passed by Congress, in regard to sla- 
very anywhere, in the States or Territories, 
which was not dictated or controlledjby the 
statesmen of the South, demanded by the 
public opinion of the South, or which has 
not received the sanction and approval of 
the leading statesmen of that section of 
country. The whole policy'of the Federal 
Government in regard to the government of 
the Territories, and the slavery question in 
all irs bearings, is just such as Mr. Lincoln, 
will be compelled by tiie Constitution and 
his oath of office, to enforce. More sir: It 
is the policy, which has been initiated and 
carried into efl'ect by the Democratic or 
dominent party of the South. It has been 
forced upon the country by them, and has, 
heretofore, met their cordial approval. If I 
had time, I could demonstrate this by proof. 
And just here Mr. Speaker, — as I will not 
be able to say all I wish to say, within the 
hour allowed by the rules of the House, un- 
less by unanimous consent, — I will pledge 
myself, if the House will grant me an exten- 
sion of time, not to trouble it again, with 
any extended remarks, during the remaining 
few days of the session. Intending to im- 
pose upon myself a voluntary retirement 
from public life, at the close of the present 
Congress, I hope I may have the permission 
of the House, to be unrestricted as to time. 
(Cries of "go on," "we will extend your 
time.") 

Mr. Speaker: When the Declaration of 
Independence was proclainifl*! ; when the 
Constitution was ratified, 01' stern boun- 

dary was the Mississippi^ am that 



10 



day to this, at the instance of Southern 
statesmen, the area of this country has been 
vastly enlarged. At the period of Independ- 
ence, slavery may be said to have existed, 
i« all the States and Territories. Before 
this time, slavery had been sanctioned by 
law, throughout the British possessions of 
North America, and, of course, it remained 
after the war of the Revolution. Since that 
period, as I have already said. Southern pol- 
icy has controlled the question of territorial 
aggrandizement. Whatever territory the 
men of the South have asked Congress to 
acquire, the same has been acquired ; what- 
ever policy her representatives have advoca- 
ted, whether financial or commercial, has 
generally prevailed ; and in all these protract- 
ed struggles, growing out of the slavery 
qaestion, the just and reasonable demands 
and guarantees, required by us, have been 
given. Perhaps, in some cases, men of ex- 
treme views have not been gratified, but 
every protracted struggle has resulted, in 
what has been regarded as Southern tri- 
umphs, or acquiesced in as fair legislative 
enactments. And this has occurred when the 
Northern States had a large representative 
majority. These facts should certainly be 
considered ^by those who are told that the 
Federal GovernrneBt is a curse, and dis- 
union a blessing. 

The purchase of the Louisiana territory — a 
slave-holding country — was made at the in- 
stance of the people of the South. Three 
slave and two free States have already been 
formed within its limits. Its area was great. 
It now has vast resources, and in a few brief 
years it will haye the wealth and population 
of a mighty empire. Fifty years hence it 
will be more powerful in all that constitutes 
a State than was France when Napoleon, 
flushed with victory, first looked upon the 
*• sun of Austerlitz." It was acquired, I re- 
peat, by the negotiations of a southern Presi- 
dent — Northern Representatives generou:-ly 
voting with those of the South to advise the 
treaty and to contribute the purchase money. 
Subsequently — in 1819 — we purchased Flo- 
rida, in which slavery then and now exists. 
I menition Florida with somewhat of sorrow, 
I will not say with shame. But a few years 
ago tlie statesmen of this country were clam- 
orous that Florida should be purchased by 
the Federal Government. For what pur- 
pose? Because, said they: that peninsula 
Belongs to a Foreign Power. It is part and 
parcel of this continent ; it is geographically 
apart of the United States; it commands 
the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and its 
hostile eye frowns upon our increasing com- 
merce — it micst be ours. And, sir, it w.vs 
purchased — purchased at a cost of five mil- 
lions of dollars. We have expended nearly 
fifty millions in subduing and removing the 



savages. Millions more have been expended 
in erecting beacons and fortifications along 
her reefs, to protect the commerce of the 
whole country. Yet, after all these large 
expenditures, Florida, with but little over 
half the number of the voting population of 
the district I represent, secedes — goes out of 
the Union — carrying with her, not only 
our public lands, but the forts, arsenals, 
and fortifications which were placed 
there by this Government for the bene- 
fit of the whole Union. And worse still: 
she breaks the unity of our Government, and 
destroys the prestige which has attended her 
glorious career. I can better pardon Soutli 
Carolina, for she was one of the glorious 
" Old Thirteen ;' but little Florida— vrhich 
to-day has barely population sufficient to 
protect herself from the alligators within her 
borders — is wholly without apology. Florida, 
like Louisiana, was purchased by the aid of 
northern Representatives, and paid for by 
the money of all our people ; yet, without a 
single grievance, she is to destroy the Union 
of the States, to which she owes her very 
existence. 

Gentlemen will pardon me if I speak 
plainly, for I feel that I plead the cause of 
ray whole country. Indeed, I would deserve 
to forfeit the good opinion of the people who 
sent me here, were I to attempt to avoid the 
responsibilities of the hour. They will be 
best met by dealing with them in a frank 
and candid spirit. 

I begin next with the acquisition of Texas, 
another slaveholding region. We admitted 
her into the then happy family of Slates and 
welcomed her people to our embrace when 
they sought the protection of our national 
flag. And this reminds us of her early 
trials and recalls t^ie vicissitudes of her hero 
chieftain. I allude of course to General 
Houston, whose old age is now devoted to 
the pgeservation of the Federal Union. 
His life, though protracted through two 
generations, has been historic at every 
step: but its subliraesl hour is now. His- 
tory tells of reluctant exiles, who returned 
to their native land, with the avenging 
torch and sword, but history furnishes but 
one Houston. His exile was voluntary. He 
abandoned fame and honors, when tendered 
by his State; he returned tottering witii the 
weight of years, and the load of empire he 
laid down at your feet. In his exile he still 
loved the flag of his native land. Distance 
and banishment had impressed hiia with a 
truer sense of its protecting power, and he 
clings to it still. The taunt of " subrais- 
sionist" and 'hoiry-headed traitor" have not, 
I trust it never will, cause him to abandon 
it to its i'oes. 

The annexation of Texas led, finally, to 
a war with Mexico — a war against which, 



11 



as you know, many of the people of the 
North protested. This is abundantly proved 
by reference to the political history of that 
day. The people of the South, generally, 
demanded that this should be the occasion 
of annexing a large part of Mexico, and it 
■was done. The ratification of the treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo, extended your area to 
the Pacific ocean. Thus had the old thir- 
teen States expanded, until now we stretch 
from the torr'id zone of the South to the 
frozen regions of the North, while on the 
East and West we are met by the returning 
waves of the two great oceans of the world. 
This is the country whick party madness 
would suspend upon the passions of the 
hour. Behold it, with all its vast resources, 
its rivers and lakes, its mountains, and min- 
eral wealth. Though in its infancy, it is 
greater in all the elements of enduring 
power, and more advanced in a high civili- 
zation, than was the Roman empire, when 
her Imperial eagles were hovering around 
the pillar of Hercules. The hand of dis- 
union mtust be stayed. Our country must not 
pn-ish,vfh\[e its monuments are yet unfinished 
and the soldiers of the Revolution survive. 

Again : In 1793 the South demanded the 
passage of a law by Congress for the return 
of fugitive slaves. It was promptly passed. 
In 1850 you complained of its inefficiency 
and demanded a more stringent one — it was 
granted — it has been faithfully enforced by 
the Federal Government. Even disunion- 
ists admit this to be so. What more? In 
•1820, a majority of Representatives from 
the Southern States, voted for the Missouri 
Compromise. In the Senate, among South- 
ern Senators, the vote was ten to one in its 
favor. So unmistakably satisfactory was it 
at the time, that Mr. Pinckney, of South 
Carolina — then soeminent and distinguished 
— declared that it was regarded as "a great 
Southern triumph." The public men of 
the South, who secured the adoption of that 
compromise, were, until recently, proclaimed 
"public benefactors." 

In 1854]the same men, who are now clam- 
orous for disunion, demanded the repeal of 
that compromise, and it was accomplished 
by the aid of Northern votes. You repeal- 
ed it, — time honored as it was — and inaugu- 
rated the new doctrine of Popular Sove- 
reignty, or non-interference on the part of 
Congress, which doctrine is in full force to- 
day, in all the organized Territories. That 
principle was embodied in laws, enacted by 
the Repre.^entatives from the South, and 
which, repeatedly since 1850, has been rati- 
fied at the polls ; and the whole Democratic 
party of the country have solemnly pledged 
themselves, to stand by it, as a final setlle- 
ment. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was the 
pet measure of those who now compose the 



main army of the seceders — demanded by 
the Democratic party of the South, and un- 
fortunately lor the country, yielded by tbeir 
allies at the North. 

True, in 1850 you demanded that the Mis- 
souri compromise line, with additional guar- 
antees, should be extended to the Pacific 
ocean, and I frankly confess, it was refused 
by the North ; but you secured the compro- 
mise measures of 1850 which most of the 
public men of the South, declared were bet- 
ter '' in substance and principle," than the 
measures which had been refused. These 
compromise measures of 1850, were ratified 
with singular unanimiiy by all those, North 
and South, who in 1852 voted for Mr. Pierce 
and General Scott for the Presidency. In- 
deed the two great political parties of that 
day pledged themselves to abide by these 
measures, as an honorable and fair adjust- 
ment of the whole subject of slavery in the 
Territories. And all these measures are yet 
untouched, and in full force to-day. I ask 
again, then, what principle or policy — what 
public measure — have the peopleof the South 
ever urged upon the Federal Government, 
which has been denied? I answer none. 
It is true that the politicians, during the last 
year,demanded that the FederalGovernment, 
which as a rule, has never legislated for or 
against slavery — which is neither pro-slavery 
nor anti-slavery, which has abolished slavery 
in some Territories, and protected it in 
others — should reverse its former policy, and 
that slavery should be protected by Congress 
upon every square inch of the organized 
Territories of the United States, without 
any regard whatever to the v/ill of the peo- 
ple of the Territories, although they might 
have abolished it by legislative enactment. 
This demand, which no reasonable man 
could have expected to be yielded, was re- 
jected by a majority of millions. The issue 
was made in the last Presidential election, 
in the most pointed manner. The result was 
precisely what its advocates and opponents 
alike desired and expected. In that contest 
nearly two millions of men voted for Mr. 
Lincoln; nearly two millions for Mr. Douglas, 
and about three quarters of a million for Mr. 
Bell. All those who adhered to Lincoln and 
Douglas, and a large majority of those who 
sustained Mr. Bell, declared against it — 
against demanding this impossibility of the 
Federal Congress. Breckenridge only re- 
ceived about eight hundred thousand votes, 
being in a popular minority, even in the 
slave States; so that the advocates of con- 
gressional legislation, to protect slavery ia 
the free Territories — including all those who 
voted for Breckinridge — were in a minority 
of more than three millions. And this worth- 
less abstraction — so impossible to obtain in 
or out of the Union — is the only demand 



12 



which has been made by any respectable 
portion of the people of the South, which 
Congress has denied. I amnot alonein the 
belief that this plank was inserted in their 
platform by the original scceders at Balti- 
more, for no other or higher purpose than to 
strengthen the cause of disunion in the 
South. In proof of this I will say : the Fed- 
eral Government has been in operation near- 
ly eighty years, and up to this hour — so far 
as I know — nosoiUhern member of Congress 
has so much as introduced a bill to provide 
for the protection of slavery in the free Ter- 
ritories of the United Slates. Yet southern 
politicians now propose to dissolve the Union, 
because a majority of tliree millions of voters 
have decided that non-intervention by Con- 
gress, shall be its policy in regard to slavery 
in our original Territories, in preference to 
the new dogma of congressionTil protection. 
To the doctrine of non-intervention a large 
{K)rtion of the Republican party are willin:^ 
to subscribe. But were they not willing to 
do so — it i.s well known that, if the members 
from tiie seceding States were to remain at 
their posts, no proposition could pass Con- 
gress, during Mr. Lincoln's administration 
for the abolition of slavery in the Territories, 
the District of Columbia, or in any place 
within the jurisdiction of Congress. Not- 
withstanding they have seceded, it cannot 
be done now. I undertake to say that the 
wisest men of the Republican parly, do not 
desire to attempt any such thing. 

It is worthy of observation, Mr. Speaker, 
that every argument of a disunionist may 
be successfully met and refuted bv the corn- 
plaints of another. I will submit one ex- 
ample, which is a fair specimen of ail the 
rest : It is said by one that he desires to 
overthrow the Government for the purpose 
of expanding slavery; that there will be, 
within the next fifty years, twenty or thirty 
millions of slaves in the southern States, 
and that self-preservation requires us to an- 
ticipate this, and to secure area for the spread 
of the negro population, which will then be 
crowded into the slave region. To this an- 
other replies : that the South now has suf- 
ficient territory; many more square miles 
than the free States, and he desires disunion 
to re-open the African slave trade, to procure 
additional labor for the vast, unsettled regions 
we now have. His motto is " More Negroes 
from Africa." The truth is, the South needs 
no forced or sudden expansion. What is the 
true reason that you do not form and people 
dave States as rapidly as free States? It is 
not from want of territory, as you know. It 
proceeds from causes which no human power 
can avoid or control. Not only soil and cli- 
mate, but population, are against you. To 
keep pace with the rapid strides of the free 
States you must first repeal that law of na- 



ture, which is older than Lincoln and 
stronger than the Republican platform: Be 
fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. 
[Laughter.] You have not the population 
now, nor have you — as the North has— *a 
heavy immigration from Europe. For years 
you have given that immigration your en- 
couragement, and it now pours in unbroken 
current upon your tempting public domain. 

Mr. Speaker, I shall attempt no apology 
lor that portion of the Republican platform 
which declares it to be the right and duty of 
Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territo- 
ries. I do not hesitate here, as I have done 
elsewhere, to pronounce this feature of their 
party creed to be wrong, if for no other 
reason, because the extension or restriction 
of slavery, as they well know, depends now 
on causes which are more controlling than 
any mere act of Congress. It has proved a 
most unwise and unnecessary feature in their 
political creed. It was inserted, I apprehend, 
ibr a reason similar to that wliich has caused 
a certain dominant party in the South, for 
years past, to make the negro issue para- 
mount to all others — to carry an election. And 
at last our southern friends have found, to 
their sorrow, that this Sambo game is one 
that two can play at. I hope, as they 
have lost the stakes, they will resort to no 
otiier means than the ballot-box to regain 
their party power. I implore you to avoid 
the dire alternative of disunion ; trust to 
that reaction in public opinion which is sure 
to come in every case where wrong or error 
exist, and reason is left free to combat it. 
And it is because I have fiiith in the sober 
second-thought of the people everywfhere, 
that I propose to appeal from this Congress 
to them. If, sir, you have grievances, are 
you disposed to break up the Government 
rather than ask the people of the free States 
— your brethren and kindred — to fconsider 
them? No; let us adjourn this unhappy 
quarrel to the people — the real people — to 
whom this Government belongs. 'Tis but 
eighteen months untilthis whole dispute will 
be transferred by the Constitution to the 
whole people of the United States ; but I 
implore you to transfer it to them now, and 
I apprehend those who persist in refusing so 
reasonable a demand, will be consigned to 
retirement and obscurity. I am not afraid 
to trust the people, and I shall be content to 
abide by their deliberate decision upon all 
these questions, when made. 

I ask again, Why destroy our country, be- 
cause this Congress may fail to agi'cc upon 
specific legislative measures or constitutional 
nnicndinents, which have been before the coun- 
try but a few weeks, and upon which the peo- 
ple of the States, North and South, have had 
no means of passing a final judgment. I pro- 
test as'iinst it. 



13 



Wlien, sir, and urxler what circurastancwi, 
was this IIoiHc of R- p xspntatives choscr. ? 
T'beraeuiber.-sfnim the Free States were n/ar^y 
all elected h\ 1858. Tliey were elected amid 
the esciteiuent an-l ind gnation wlich per- 
vaded all clai^^SP-.s » f people in the Free fjtatcs, 
because the power snd pu,i.ron.'ig.- of the Ad- 
miriiHtration had boon invoked — not to coerce 
a State, not to eypel a State from the Union, 
but to coerce a Territory into the Union with 
a Constitution that its people abhorred. In 
that indignant uprising of the people, when 
party lines were eradicated, men who were 
most violent and extreme in their views were 
chosen by the people. They were elected, as 
I have said, without regard to the specific 
measures now before us. Other members 
from the Free States were elected at that time, 
with a special reference to the alleged extrava- 
gances, frauds, and corruptions of the present 
administration and its advisers. And how was 
it in the last Presidential election? Mr. Lin- 
coln, it is well known, wjvs not elected solely 
because of his sympathy and connection with 
the Republican party. AH the odds and 
ends — all the opposition which Mr. Buchanan's 
unfortunate administration had aroused, was 
invoked to the support of the Republican can- 
didate, to prevent the election of Mr. Douglas, 
who was reijarded as the most formidable rival. 
For Mr. Lilboln, it is known, every element 
of opposition to the ruling powers was most 
earnestly and successfully invoked. The Dem- 
ocratic partj'-, it was known, had great re- 
sources. Its leaders were artful and indus- 
ti-ious, ready to resort to every stratagem for 
success. The idea generally prevailed that 
they knew how to keep open the ballot-box 
until they got votes enough. (Laughter.) 
These things were known or believed by every 
one, and throughout the Free States, with rare 
exceptions,all who felt that the overthrow of the 
present Democratic party was demandvd by the 
interests of the country voted for Mr. Lincoln. 

There is another reason why disunionists 
should have no apologists or defenders. Were 
Mr. Lincoln the monster they affect to re- 
gard him, it is well known — and to none 
better than themsclvet — that during his whole 
administration the Senate would haVe been 
politically opposed to him. The next House 
of Representatives, if the seceding States are 
represented, will be also largely opposed to 
the Republican party, while, the Supreme 
Court, — heretofore claimed as the sheet-anchor 
of those who are now disunionists — is com- 
posed almost entirely of the political opponents 
of Mr. Lincoln. With these facts before us, 
wc behold the seceders running away from 
dangers which they have the power to avert, 
and cannot therefore truly fear. In common 
parlance they have "spiked their cannon, 
burned their gun-carraiges, and retired fer 
safety," to Port Disunion, (Laughter,) 



inere are gentlemen on theRepubli«m side 
of the House who refus? to agree to what I 
regard as a reasonable proposition for com- 
promise or acijustment, because — as the}' say — 
it will not correspond with their former poHti- 
cal records. Political consistency is desirable 
only when it accords with wisdom. There 
should be no hesitation between apparent pei'- 
sonal consistency, and the preservation of the 
country. Great emergencies often demand a 
seeming sacrific-.*, and should that sacrifjoe be 
demanded now, I trust we shall all be found 
ready to offer it upon the altar of our countiy. 
I appeal, then, first to yon ;^and should you, as 
Representatives, fail to meet the just expecta- 
tions of reasonable men, I will appeal from you 
to the people — to those who are etill your 
masters. 

The people of the South, who have most 
at stake, will be found to counsel prudence 
and moderation. Wise men, conscious of 
J;hat power which is inspireei by being in 
the right, will not embrace the precipitation 
and madness of the times. Whatever they 
may desire our northern brethern to do, they 
will make known in a firm yet respectful and 
fraternal way. Whatever your politicains 
may do, I doubt not the pc^ople of the North 
will meet us, if time is given, and moderation 
prevails, in a reciprocal spirit. Interchange 
of opinion will lead, no doubt, to the best re- 
sults, and we will yet preserve in all its glory 
that country still so dear for its blessings. 

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. (interrupting) 
I want to ask the gentleman from Tennessee 
a question which may control my vote upon 
the pending propositions, and I trust he will 
give me a candid answer. 

Ml-. ETKERIDGE. I will. 

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. If his .'Statement 
of the case between the slaveholding and the 
non-slaveholding States of the Union be true, 
ought the people of the free States to humf- 
iate themselves by proposing any con.stitu- 
tioniil amendment, or any additional legisla- 
tion ? 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, so per- 
sistant have been the misrepresentations of 
the leading men in all sections of the Union — 
" misapprenhension " is perhaps abetter term 
— so persistent have been these misrepresen- 
tations, made even at the Noith, and under 
which our people are laboring, in regard to 
what the Republican policy is to he, that xa&ny 
of the people of the South seem a'raost willing 
— pardon the expression — " to b Keve a lie that 
they may be damned." (Laughter.) Now, sir, 
I will give the gentleman a specimen. 

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Ought ' e peo- 
ple of the free States to do anything i..een.sist- 
ent with their self-respect? 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I vrill not ask thorn to 
do anything which self-respect forbids. But 
it is known that a portion of the people of the- 



14 



South are like a tempest — I will not call them 
mad, others have called them insan.e — I do 
not inquire why they are so; they ought 
not to be so ; but we are advised, in some part 
of Holy Writ, tha}, it is sometimes best t ) an- 
Bwer even a fool "according to his folly." And 
if these people are excited to so fearful an ex- 
tent, and if they are thus misled, is it not 
proper for the Republicans, for the Democrats, 
for all the people of the North, to say that 
they will not do that which we all know they 
do not propose to do ? 

I will read from a paper edited by a gentle- 
man now spoken of for the office of Clerk of 
the House of Representatives for the great 
Southern Confederacy, which disunion pro- 
poses to form. Pending an election for dele- 
gates in one of the seceding States, he perpe- 
trated, among other things, the following : 

" Truth will Save thk Union.^' The plan of Lincoln 
end his advisers is to turn the negroes of the South loose, 
and compel the poor people of the South to intermiirry 
■with them. With this hybrid population, Ihey (the Yan- 
kees) expect to raise cotton for their looms — in tact to 
reap the harvest of the South. But the white people of the 
South, however poor, are opposed to amalganiaiini with 
negroes— ihey leaveihntio the white people of Massachu- 
setts. Wi are of the opinion, ihnt the attempt to force 
amalgamation on the non-slaveholders of tlie South, will 
be the most ditficull job Mr. Lincoln ever undertook. He 
may give his own dausrhters, or his neisrhhors', to buck 
negroes, but the sentiment is dilTerent here.'" 

Why, sir, is it not a matter of history that 
R. Barnwell Rhett stood in the streets of Chrles- 
ion a few weeks ago announcing to the enraged 
multitude that the people of the North bad elec- 
ted a mulatto forVice-President AndMr.Mom- 
minger, too, went into the interior — to Green- 
ville, 1 think it was — and announced there, to 
the denizens of the piney hills, to gentlemen, to 
lawyers, to doctors, to loafers, to short boys, to 
every body that stood around, that Hannibal 
Hamlin was a mulatto, and that the people of 
the North had elected an Aholitionist for 
President, and a viidntto for Vice-President. 
Now every body knows that what you or I 
may say upon that subjeet will never reach 
the ears of that misguided people. 

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I desire simply 
to inquire whether there is anything in the 
Crittenden propositions, or in those known as 
the propositions of the border State committee, 
or in the report of the Committe of Thirty- 
three, tending to remove this singular " delu- 
sion " which the f,cntleman says exists in the 
Blinds of the southern people? 

Mr ETHERIDGE. I will answer that ques- 
(3*1 f I ankly. Thero is: I tell the gentleman 
from Ohio, the true Union men of the South 
are standing to-day, struggling with all their 
power to preserve the Government ; fighting, 
i,^ 'hey believe, for the cause of religion, hu- 
. ..lity, civilization, and progress; and all these 
tilings are involved in the peace of the countiy. 
And that peace may depend upon the adop- 
tion of tlic.se propositions. They are sui round- 
ed by a tempestuous despotism— everywhere 
confronting a panic which is made to feed it- 



self. It is all devouring. Why, sir, it is wel 
known to every gentlem.an who reads the 
newspapers, that wherever this disunion Sen- 
timent predominates, it is simply a reio-n of 
terror. 

Go to the cities of South Carolina, and what 
do you see? Men frantic and in arms. Go to 
Charleston, to Tallahassee, to Montgomery, to 
Jackson— to any place where those conven- 
tions were assembled, and you see the nwlitary 
in full control of everything. These conven- 
tions deliberated three or four hours only over 
the fate of an Empire. Every thing that 
might have invoked calmness or deliberation 
had disappeared, and martial music and war- 
like demonstrations attested the fallacy of a 
peaceful disruption of the States. 

Mr. LEAKE. Will the gentleman allow me 
to ask him a question. 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Certainly. 

Mr. LE A KE. I merely wish to know wheth- 
er the gentleman is speaking on the side of the 
North, or the South ? 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I am speaking on a 
side that has few representatives upon this 
floor. I am speaking on the side of my country. 
(Great applause in the galleries.) 

Why, sir, as I was proceeding to say, what 
is the state of affairs now in all the villages 
and cities of the Gulf States ? Sir, bold men, 
educated men, ambitious man, Aen of chiv- 
alry and daring, are heading the military forces. 
Men, women, and children are excited, just as 
the pomp and circumstance of war will ex- 
cite everybody. Thousands believe honestly 
that Lincoln and his cohorts are coming dowfl 
to apply the torch and the knife to the dwell- 
ings and the people of the South. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

Mr. LOVEJOY obtained the floor. 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I supposed I had the 
unanimous consent of the House to proceed. 

The SPEAKER jyro tern., (Mr. Dawes in 
the Chair.) The gentleman can proceed if 
there be no objection. 

Mr. WINSLOW. I object. 

Mr. MORRIS, of Illinois The House has 
already given it? consent. 

Mr.MAYNARD. I understood that the 
consent of all sides of the Hou.se was obtained 
that my colleague should be allowed to pr©- 
ceed beyond his hour. 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Noobjection was made. 

Mr. WINSLOW. I ob]^ct. 

Mr. HARRIS, of Maryland. I rise to a 
point of order. I addressed the Chair first 
when the hammer fell upon the gentleman 
from Tennessee, and I am entitled to the floor. 
I have no objection to the gentleman proceed- 
ing, if that be the wish of the House, but I 
desire to have the floor if I am entitled to it. 

The SPEAKER pro t-em. The Chair has 
assigned the floor to the gentleman from Illi- 
nois. 



15 



Mr. MAYNARD, My colleague applied to 
the House duriHg his remarks, and made cer- 
tain pledges upon which he obtained the unani- 
mous consent of the House to proceed with 
his remarks. There was not a dissenting 
voice. He afterwards gave way to the gentle- 
man from Ohio under the pledge which was 
then made. 

Mr. WINSLOW. The gentleman did not 
ask unanimous consent. 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I ask, then, only the 
few minutes I think I am entitled to, and 
which I lost when I yielded to the gentleman 
from Ohio. 

The SPEAKER pro tern. Is objection 
made? 

Mr. WINSLOW. It is better to stop this 
thing in the beginning, and unless the hour 
rule is suspended generally, I must object. 

Mr. HARRIS, of Maryland. I rise to a 
point of order. It is that the instant the 
hammer of the Speaker fell I addressed the 
Chair, and was entitled to be recognized. 

The SPEAKER pro tern. The Chair un- 
derstands the rule to be that when more than 
one gentleman rises at the same time, it is the 
province of the Chair to assign the floor. The 
Chair obsei-ving several members rising at the 
same moment, assigned the floor to the gen- 
tleman from Illinois. 

Mr. HARRIS, of Maryland. I must submit 
to the decision of the Chair. 

Mr. WINSLO W. In order to accommodate 
the gentleman from Tennessee, I propose, that 
by unanimous consent, the hour rula bo abol- 
ished during this discussion. 
Mr. COX. I object. 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I now insist upon 
the few minutes which I lost by interruptions. 
[Cries of " go on," " go on."] 
The SPE AKER/JT-o tein. Is objection made? 
Mr. CRAIGE, of North Carolina. I object. 
Mr. MORRIS, of Illinois. I rise to a point 
of order. It is this : that by unanimous con- 
sent of the House, permission was given to the 
gentleman from Tennessee to conclude his re- 
marks upon an intimation that he would not 
occupy the floor at any other time during this 
session. When he made that proposition there 
was not a solibxry objection to it in the House, 
and hence objection now comes too late. 

The SPEAKER 2)ro (em. The Chair docs 
not understand that any such assent was 
yiekW by the Hous(#» 

Mr. Er'nERlDGE. I will relieve the House. 
I ask that I may occupy the rengfeinder of my 
hour, and then I will resume my scat 

Mr. CRAIGE, of North Carolina. I have 
objected to it lime and again. 

The gPEilKER pro tern. The gentleman 
can proceed only by unanimous consent. 



Mr. GROW. I would inquire if the time 
occupied in interruptions has been deducted 
from the gentleman's hour? 

The SPEAKER pro tern. Nothing was 
stated by the Chair one way or the other. 

Mr. GROW. The gentleman from Tennes- 
see declined to yield for interruptions unless 
they were to be deducted from his time. 

Mr. CRAIGE, of North Carolina. Nothing 
was said about the extension of his time at all- 
Mr. GROW. The gentleman yielded the 
floor with the understanding that the time 
occupied by the interruptions should be de- 
ducted from his hour. 

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. When I request- 
ed the gentleman from Tennessee to yield for 
a question, his answer was, '* I will yield, pro- 
vided it does not come out of my time." 

Mr. GROW. And nobody objected to that 
agreement. 

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I think that 
whatever time was occupied in the dialogue 
between him and myself ought to be allowed 
him. 

The SPEAKER pro tern. The Chair heard 
no such statement, but will allow the gentle- 
man from Tennessee to proceed for five min- 
utes. 

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I will not, after what 
has just occurred, detain the House but a mo- 
ment. I will conclude* by saying that I shall 
voto for the proposition of the venerable Sen- 
ator from Kentucky, [Mr. Crittenden;] I 
shall, as I have before said, vote for the pro- 
position submitted by myself, and if these fjiil, 
I shall sustain the measures reported by the 
gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Cokwin.] Sir, I 
will vote for anything which will relieve the 
public mind from the painful apprehensions 
under which it now labors. If anything of 
this kind can pass this Congress — and I do 
not despair — it will do my heart good to know 
that the tide of revolution has laeen thereby 
j-.tayed. But, as I have already stated, if 
nothing is finally done, I will go home to my 
people; I will throw myself in "the imminent 
deadly breach," and resist the storm of dis- 
union to the last; and, sir, if the worst must 
come to the worst — if I am to be dragged to 
the fearful precipice and ma^e the reluctant 
victim or the unwilling observer of my coun- 
try's ruin, I now in advance wash my hands 
of the shame and the crime which will attach 
to those who would overthrow the public lib- 
erty to erect a despotism upon it*? ruins. Sir, 
where the flag of my country floats, there I 
will go. I will cling to it in this daik hour of 
its ptril with that sacred trust and confidence 
a saint must feel in clinging to Lis God. 
[Great applause in the galleries;] 



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